| The first lady is the wife of the Head of State,for some countries she is the wife of the President of the Republic and for others she is the wife of the Prime Minister according to the different political structures which embodied in the constitution.Despite the fact that this title does not represent any function in the official hierarchy,the First Lady still plays a significant role in the political environment of several countries.Beyond their activities within their respective countries,First Ladies are also visible internationally.They accompany their husbands to various international events or travel in accordance with their own agendas.The content of these activities of the first ladies on the international scene constitutes what we call first lady diplomacy.In this work,the author focuses on the first lady diplomacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.This Central African country,the third largest in Africa,experienced its first peaceful change of presidency in January 2019.Following the presidential election held in December 2018,Mr.Felix-Antoine Tshilombo Tshisekedi replaced Mr.Joseph Kabila Kabange,who had just spent 18 years there.The end of the latter's term of office was characterised by a quasi-diplomatic break with the Western countries which did not agree with his 'longevity' in power.One of his successor's priorities was therefore to re-engage with this international environment.Indeed,in one calendar year(2019),Mr.Felix Tshisekedi made 35 trips outside the DRC.During his 35 trips,the President of the DRC was accompanied by his wife on several occasions.Beyond the common agenda they often had together,the First Lady also sometimes had her own agendas during these trips abroad.Besides these trips as a couple,the First Lady Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi had other trips abroad alone in her First Lady's cap.The aim of this work is to analyse the first lady of the DRC's visits abroad from top to bottom,evaluating the content of the activities held there,with a view to assessing her first lady diplomacy in 2019.In order to do this,the author asked himself various questions as research questions: Is the first lady diplomacy effective in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? If so,what is its content and what measures are in place to facilitate its implementation? If not,how are the First Lady's so-called diplomatic activities carried out? In the same vein,the author formulated hypotheses to answer these questions.Indeed,the author thinks that the current First Lady of the DRC is trying as best she can to exist on the international scene by valuing her position for the country's interest,but her actions remain opportunistic and lack initial strategic planning.He also thinks that in the composition of the First Lady's cabinet(or the team that works with her)this diplomatic aspect has not been sufficiently foreseen,and therefore specialists in "first lady diplomacy" would be missing.In order to test these hypotheses and thus answer the research questions,the author exploited the twitter accounts of the Presidency of the DRC and that of the First Lady of the DRC.The information gathered through this process was supplemented by a literature review that served to fill in gaps in the information already received.The results obtained show that Mrs.Denise Tshisekedi participated in 14 of the Head of State's 35 trips abroad(40%).Out of the 14 trips,the First Lady was content to play her protocol role on 9 occasions(64%),while on 5 occasions she had a busy agenda at her destination in addition to her common agenda with the Head of State.Nevertheless,in addition to these trips as a couple,the First Lady made 4 other "official" trips alone with her services.This gives her a total of 9 active trips in 2019,and therefore an average of one "diplomatic" trip per month,if we know that she did not start her public activities until mid-March 2019.Her diplomatic work has also been enriched by several relevant activities carried out within the country whenever she publicly faced an audience of foreigners.The content of this so-called diplomatic activity has been fully consistent with the First Lady's vision,which is set out in a document that describes the strategic and operational planning of this vision,known as "Stronger",whose implementation within the country is ensured thanks to the DNT(Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi)foundation created for the occasion.The "Stronger" vision rests,in fact,on four pillars:(1)Health(sexual health,maternal and reproductive health,pediatrics especially sickle cell disease);(2)Education(advocacy for girls' education);(3)Gender-based violence(combating violence against women in all its forms and at all levels);and finally(4)Empowerment(advocacy to support women's employability,including women's entrepreneurship).Thus,all the diplomatic actions in which the First Lady Denise Tshisekedi participated,both inside and outside the country,in 2019,fell under one pillar or another of the four above-mentioned pillars.This hyperactivity of public diplomacy aimed at the social welfare of the Congolese population has even earned her several trophies and international recognitions awarded either by United Nations agencies or by other international NGOs.Mrs.Denise Tshisekedi woke up the first lady diplomacy who was at half-mast in the DRC thanks to some levers she put in place.But as expected,besides these strengths,some weaknesses(constraints)still hinder the machine.Among the points that contributed in favor of her first lady diplomacy,the author noted:(1)the personality of the First Lady(orphan of father and mother since the age of 9 months,has lived in several countries,trained as a nurse and perfectly bilingual in French and English);(2)the existence of a clear vision("stronger")as already described;(3)the fact of having a communication service that is up to date,and above all(4)the visible support of her husband,the Head of State.On the contrary,other elements collected were identified as stifling this first lady diplomacy;these are :(1)the nature and composition of the Office of the First Lady(this Office clearly lacks independence from the Office of the Head of State,and in its composition it is sorely lacking a member who deals with diplomatic matters);(2)the failure to explicitly take the diplomatic dimension into account in the planning tools used to implement the First Lady's vision,and(3)the fact that the First Lady's communication is managed very cautiously to the point of sometimes falling into non-information.The results obtained at the end of this work,and their analysis,led to the conclusion that the first lady diplomacy does exist in the DRC,or is at least resurrected there after almost 20 years of virtual non-existence.Its content is fully in line with the "Stronger" vision of the current First Lady of the DRC,although the diplomatic dimension is not clearly inscribed in the planning details inherent in this vision.But also the hypothesis that there is no specialist in(public)diplomacy in the team working with the First Lady was verified.Thus,in order to perpetuate the practice of first lady diplomacy in the DRC,the author has made some recommendations to the first lady of the DRC,to policy makers in the DRC,to policy makers in other countries,and to the academia.It would be very interesting to extend this study either horizontally(to all current first ladies in Africa)or vertically(by making a prospective study following the activities of Mrs.Denise Tshisekedi until the end of her husband's presidential term),or both.This thesis work(for a master's degree in public diplomacy)comprises five chapters: the first chapter is a general introduction;the second chapter deals with the literature review on the subject;while the third chapter presents and comments on the so-called diplomatic activities of Mrs Denise Tshisekedi in 2019;the fourth chapter,for its part,deals with the lessons learned from the effective implementation of first lady diplomacy according to Mrs Denise Tshisekedi;and finally the fifth and last chapter is a general conclusion coupled with some recommendations. |
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